Thursday Sep 18 2008, Trivendrum

Review- ‘Thaavalam'

Directed by - Baiju 2D

Produced by - Jagadeesh Chandran

Music by - Natesh Shankar

Casts - Suresh Gopi, Rithya Menon, Baby Diya, Jagathy Sreekumar, Navya Nair, Nedumudi Venu, Salim Kumar, Suraaj Venjaramoodu, Sreejith Ravi, T.G.Ravi, Manraj, Meena Ganesh etc.

Banner - Kichu Films

When the titles start rolling for ‘Thaavalam’, with the accompaniment of loud and lilting background music by Shyam Dharman, you expect it to be a feel good kind of movie.But no, you are mistaken, and the notion that you are mistaken creeps into your mind immediately as the titles end and you are face-to-face with the first scene.You see Suresh Gopi, as the protagonist Sivan, assisting Nedumudi Venu’s Panicker, at a wayside eatery.And that very instant you begin to feel that it’s all going to turn out rather awkward.Sivan (Suresh Gopi), has no one to call his own, except the kind-hearted Panicker (Nedumudi Venu), who has always been his well-wisher and mentor.

And hence he has been working at Panicker’s wayside shop.It’s while working at the wayside shop that Sivan happens to save Kanakam (Sindhu Menon), a young girl from the clutches of a gang of crooks led by Gauri (Sreejith Ravi).Sivan has to fight with Gauri and his men to free Kanakam, but during the fight Gauri happens to stab one of his own men to death.Cops arrive and Gauri is apprehended (and later awarded a life-sentence).Naturally love blossoms between Sivan and Kanakam and they get married.

But their married life and happiness is short-lived as Kanakam dies at childbirth.All this happens in just about 15 to 20 minutes in the movie and then we move on further in time.Five years later we find Sivan working as a cobbler and doting on his daughter Meenakshi, for whom he is father, mother and everything.Meenakshi (Baby Diya), for Sivan, is the hub of his whole life itself.He doesn’t care about anything else, not even the love that is shown towards him by Thamara (Rithya Menon), a girl belonging to a band of gypsies.

All this moves on, to a very predictable climax where Gauri is expected to turn up, seeking revenge.And Gauri, when he comes out on parole, makes his rounds, just like the usual filmi villain, on a bike, aiming to carry away Meenakshi.And at the same time we come to learn that Sivan is terminally ill and his days are counted.Almost coincidentally we have an elderly, issueless couple (Jagathy Sreekumar and Manka Mahesh) coming to the place regularly to pray at the temple there for getting blessed with children.So, how does it all end? Obviously like umpteen other films you have seen.

But the director Baiju 2D happens to see to it that the end makes an impact on the mind.Suresh Gopi, to put it simply, is poor show as Sivan, a character that doesn’t suit this trigger-happy actor in any way.He doesn’t talk or appear like one who works at an eatery or a cobbler who sleeps and lives inside a bus-stop.Of course the make-up and costumes are apt, but if make-up and costumes alone would suffice for acting, anyone can become an actor.Of the other actors in the film, it is only Meena Ganesh who is fairly good in her role, as the mad Kaliyamma who goes on raving through the streets of the small town.

The heroine Rithya, a debutante, is a terrible waste of a performer.The comedy track, if there is one at all, worked out by bringing in Salim Kumar, Biju Kuttan and Salim Kumar, makes no impact whatsoever.Anandakuttan, the cinematographer, seems to have done it all in a rather callous manner as his camerawork, very much like the over-all treatment of the film itself, makes you feel that you are watching a film made in the early 1990’s.The songs don’t stay in your mind at all.‘Thaavalam’ is a film that you can very easily see and forget, and maybe even skip seeing.